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Marathon game pace concerns / Modding?

I've started a Marathon game because I wanted more time to play with the toys of each era before they become obsolete.

However, that doesn't happen. If anything, from the medieval era onwards the tech outpaces the building even faster, so I'm essentially using the toys of the previous age way through the next one even more than before because of the long build times and high upgrade costs. That I have artillery but are still waiting to upgrade some of my trebuchets to cannon for lack of cash never happened before, even when I played a science-oriented civ, and if I need to build an extra army, this takes so long that the first units are obsolete when I'm finished. Also, the tile acquisition is way too slow.

So...I guess I'm asking how to mod the game to make it facilitate the playstyle I want, but without becoming unbalanced in the process. I'm thinking of these elements:

(1) Increase the progression curve of technology, i.e make it so that nothing much changes around the start of the game, because things take long enough there, but the curve should be steeper than before and result in significantly increased costs especially from Industrial onwards.

(2) Reduce the production cost of units and buildings. I take it 300% is normal for Marathon games. Reducing it to 250 or 200 might make sense. Reduce the upgrade cost to 66% of the normal Marathon rate.

(3) Increase tile acquisition rate by....hmm....I'd say 10%. Hard to judge the long-term effects. Also, is there any way to change the ridiculous terrain preferences? Who acquires an empty ocean hex without any coastline before a hill where you could build a mine?

If the changed numbers also affect the AI, this should be doable in such a way that the game doesn't become unbalanced. Are there any recommendations? Have people tried something like this yet? How could I do it?

One thing I can recommend is Extended Eras Mod. It makes the game have marathon speed, but building/unit production is a lot faster. The one problem is that the latest update is only available on Steam (v10) while the latest one on CivilizationFanatics is v5.

"We have been, we are, and I trust we always will be, detested by the French"​

One thing I can recommend is Extended Eras Mod. It makes the game have marathon speed, but building/unit production is a lot faster. The one problem is that the latest update is only available on Steam (v10) while the latest one on CivilizationFanatics is v5.

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Thanks for mentioning this. Since I'm running the game on Steam, I should have access to the latest update

I've updated really huge pack for marathon\vanilla\large and uploading it right now.
P.S. Biggest problem here are turn times and annoying AI diplomatic offerings. Played this way already 4 games each 1500+ turns and long medieval

I've updated really huge pack for marathon\vanilla\large and uploading it right now.
P.S. Biggest problem here are turn times and annoying AI diplomatic offerings. Played this way already 4 games each 1500+ turns and long medieval

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Haha, indeed. I wish there was a way to have diplomacy parameters you could turn on and off in a game:
(1) Auto-reject any deal with Open Borders on my side.
(2) Auto-reject any deal that doesn't include at least 4 gold per turn against a luxury resource.

Also, turn times are oddly long. I didn't expect I would wish to upgrade my computer for a game like this.

Haha, indeed. I wish there was a way to have diplomacy parameters you could turn on and off in a game:
(1) Auto-reject any deal with Open Borders on my side.
(2) Auto-reject any deal that doesn't include at least 4 gold per turn against a luxury resource.
Also, turn times are oddly long. I didn't expect I would wish to upgrade my computer for a game like this.

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Turn times are solved for sure in [vanilla] now. Coire i3 will be ok for large maps. (But not with CivUP, too slow).
Diplomacy CAN be fixed, I did it via lua, but lost changes now. Sorry, a bit lazy now to restore, but deal durations fixes problem a bit (they included in pack)

P.S. Best way for open borders without lua - to accept them all in one day from all possible countries.

The one I like the most is "Quick Speed Unit Production" by Primogenitor. It only speeds units to quick speed but leaves buildings and settlers the same. That way you can play with the units but cities don't get too overdeveloped for the game pace. The mod works with all game speeds so it kind of improves epic and standard too.

The AI will sneak up a big army with this mod though. It's a good idea to keep an eye on your neighbors so you can be ready.

"Soon you will learn that Evil will always triumph, because Good is dumb" -Dark Helmet

Unless range units made less powerful and most of promotions disabled, AI won't be problem.
To make games more challenging,
-restrict amount of player units with high maintain cost
-add 20+ hp to all units (AI won't be beatable too fast)
-decrease all ranged attacks strength
-remove +range, +speed, blitz promotions
-!remove all fast heal (max +1hp per turn)
-remove exp gather for units which are under range attacks (only for attacking units themselves)
-probably remove fast city heal (cites won't defend by themselves)
-and as I noticed, AI will have better exp on Emperor difficulty
With this set you sometimes won't be able to attack because all your units required for defence and they won't heal on enemy territory. At last interesting gameplay. Playing right now this way.

Attached changes required to fix all diplomatic annoyance.
No more cycle of open borders and etc.
I believe some job required for merging this with BNW lua files if vanilla orig files (attached too) aren't same.

P.S. If you still want to suggest open borders, don't put them on the first place in trade window, put some money before them. Or dialog will be autoclosed.